The Twilight Zone
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
TV Flash files “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” as hour 142 of 156 in the TV Flash guide — The Twilight Zone (1959–1964) on CBS, season 5, episode 22, aired 1964-02-28, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E22: listed hour 142 of 156 in the The Twilight Zone guide, hour 22 of 36 in season 5. It aired 1964-02-28 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Spur of the Moment” (S05E21). Next is “Queen of the Nile” (S05E23).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
An adaptation of Ambrose Bierce's tale, Union Soldiers set out to hang Confederate prisoner Peyton Farquhar, but things don't go as planned when the rope breaks as Farquhar falls and apparently escapes in the river below.
Viewer FAQ
Where does An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge sit in the The Twilight Zone guide?
S05E22 is listed hour 142 of 156 — hour 22 of 36 in season 5, season 5 episode 22.
When did The Twilight Zone S05E22 air?
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge aired 1964-02-28 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with the empty-town opener, then the broken-glasses hour. Isolation first, stolen moral second; those two teach the anthology’s real instrument better than any twist ranking.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Serling used fantasy as a smuggled sermon when sponsors would not let a straight drama talk. Watch for isolation as craft, the twist as a bill coming due, and half-hours built to sit in the blood overnight — not to snack in a dump.
October 1959, CBS: a man walks into an empty town and the country learns a new address. The Twilight Zone did not invent the anthology. It invented the anthology as a national flinch — half-hour moral weather, a host in a dark suit, and a closing turn that was supposed to sting after the sponsor smile. Rod Serling had already fought live-drama censors and lost enough rounds to change weapons. Fantasy was the loophole. Aliens, bargains, small towns that eat themselves: the vocabulary of a writer who wanted to talk…
Filed against
- Rod Serling as Host / Narrator
Rod Serling created and hosted The Twilight Zone — moral fables in a black suit, twist endings that taught America to fear its own reflection. Sponsor and censor battles are as legendary as the episodes. On TV Flash he is prestige…